Politics

Report: Minimum wage hike backers rarely pay interns

Just because lawmakers want businesses to pay more for entry-level workers, doesn’t mean they are willing to do so themselves.

According to a new study by the Employment Policies Insitute (EPI), only four percent of the 210 lawmakers who pledged their allegiance to a bill raising the minimum wage pay their interns.

The Fair Minimum Wage Act would increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour. EPI found that 96 percent of its House and Senate supporters give their interns a minimum wage of zero.

This includes the authors of the bill, Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin and California Democratic Rep. George Miller. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is another strong supporter of the legislation who doesn’t pay her interns.

These legislators did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“To cavalierly call for a $10.10 minimum wage while the vast majority do not pay their interns, shows that they are talking out of both sides of their mouth and are not living up to the same standards they expect of others,” Michael Saltsman, EPI’s research director, told TheDCNF.